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Topic: DC get together in Western Europe?! July 2007? (Read 18516 times)

I leave for Belgium on Thursday the 21 June. I'll be near the city of Namur for most of July (through the 26) and wonder if anyone would like to get together at some point on a weekend either in Namur or at a location nearby that is more convenient for everyone? I should have posted this earlier but haven't been organised enough to type this post out until now!

Any takers? We could meet up for drinks and perhaps a meal?

Respond in this thread or off-line and we'll try to sort something out.

Mike

PS I'm also going to be in the UK for at least two or three days (haven't picked the dates yet, so they're open) - anyone in or near Cambridge that would like to get together as well? I was thinking of the Orchard in Grantchester, but again, have left this far too late to organise, so I understand if this doesn't work for anyone...

Just an update: I'll be in Cambridge July 13 through 15 (just confirmed my flight - with taxes and an unheralded €6 fee for using a credit card on the net this cost me €26 The flight from my hometown to Vancouver - 20 minute flight - costs about €236!).

OK Gothic - I *should* have open access to the internet while I'm on site - we can try to arrange this once I've got "the lay of the land" - midnight on the Citadel in Namur has a nice ring to it, but it's a bit hackneyed!

Dang! I'll be very sorry to miss you, but very happy to get back home to my wife and two little boys. Five weeks is a long time to be away. Torrential rain just now... Here I came prepared for the record breaking European summers of the past four or five years and I should have brought SCUBA gear!

Even if i really would have been very glad to have you with us and meet you in real i wish you a good trip home to your family.

It's so damn bad, but thats the only date for me when i and Rambo (my driver and also DC member) have time for traveling a whole weekend and go for a 1000 km trip in total. You can see, that we already planned to have you with us, because we select Namur as the meeting point. Its not so far away from Gothics place, you would have been there in the region too, and its an acceptable distance from my home too. But maybe there will be another possibility...somewhere in time.

And Yes again! The last 2 summers in europe SUCKS! I have to think if i travel to Namur via car or boat!

Update:Hotel rooms are reserved now. So we have passed the "Point of no Return". We'll be there at the a.m. date until sunday 29th July morning, when we'll leave again home. So, come on European members, take your bag, enter the train, plane or car and come to Namur...the heart of DC for one day!

Hey!got to visit Mike - nice guy - well worth a visit (but sure we knew that already, didn't we!)we hung out yesterday (friday) evening and again this morning (first time I ever slept in a museum!) & did a bit of sightseeing with some of his co-workers today.Yeah, nice time. me gotta sleep now though, too much driving -just back a couple of hours- & a strong Belgian beer at the journeys end..take their toll

Tom (tomos) and I had a lovely vist at Grotte Scladina and a great time in Bouillon, touring the Chateau of Godfroy de Bouillon, the first Christian King of Jerusalem. The guy was a real boy scout... He looted all of the churches in the area to help fund his campaign. At any rate, without further ado, here is a picture of us together in an area that formerly contained a large chapel but which was given over to stables in the 18th century and today serves as a theatre for a falconer's show:

Well, I had been hoping to get up there for a while & in the end the one week I was able to get up I didn't have a car so had to borrow one which was touch & go for a while so to cut the story short I think we only confirmed thurs evening the visit for friday.Journey up from Kaiserslautern took 5hrs instead of the 3 in google's perfect world - 2 traffic jams & 1 short detour in search of petrol - I'm marked on the map, Mike is up there somewhere in the top left.

So, for all that are interested what happened on the meeting, here is my report:

Rambo and i arrived, after nearly 5 hours or about 510 km of driving, at about 2:30 pm at the hotel in Namur. When we checked in, we saw that Gothic and Della are already here too, but are out of the hotel for the moment. So we decided to first get into our room and check the internet facility that the hotel offers for free.

Unpacking our laptops and setting up the WLAN connection, after we got the right password from the receptionist, was a piece of cake. And so we entered the Donationcoder chatroom.

We noticed that mouser was active and so it was the perfect time for a nice game of mouser-cheating. We both told him, that Rambos car was broken and so we can't go to Namur to meet Gothic and Della. In return we get curses from mouser about the car and the situation. This lasts a while until i asked mouser if he can explain me something strange. Why am i in the channel with a belgium ip-address? Then he realized that he was our victim , and we earned curses again from him. But now not about the car and situation, now we are the target for him.

While we have just a good laugh together, suddenly, about 3 pm, we hear a "knock-knock" on the door. We opened and there stands a young couple in front of us. With my razorsharp mind i realized within a thenth of a second "That must be Gothic and Della". And i was right!

It follows a big "Hello" and then the mandantory big "Pow-Wow". We talked about everything. From "Who are you" to "What do you do" over "The world in global scope" and "The Universe" to "Donationcoder".

And after that, seemed for me lasting about 30 minutes, i looked on my wristwatch and, oh my god time was flown away, it was already 6 pm.

Gothic told us, that they have brought his mom and her friend with them, and that they will stay over night too and will have dinner with us. That was much appreciated. As more people, as more fun.

So we decided to go to the restaurant next door of the hotel for dinner. We met in the hotel lobby and leave for the restaurant, where Gothics mom and friend are yet waiting for us. It was again a big "Hello" and Gothics mom and friend were very kind people. We got a good dinner, lots of drinks and much much fun together the whole evening. At about 11 pm we left the restaurant again and get back to the hotel.

I feeled the belgium beer a lot, and then the disaster happens . I was missing a hand! I needed one to carry my mobile phone and the electronic translator, the second one to hold myself on Rambos elbow, because he has to guide me (as for my visually impairness) and as i don't have another one to hold my trouser up, i suddenly felt my trouser going down to my ankles . It was really awkward standing there in the middle of the heavy crowded place directly before the main railway station in underwear . I have to decide what to do. Throw away my electronic equipment or loose my guideance. So i decided to leave my guide and pullup my trousers again with my now free hand. OH MY GOD . You can imagine that the others around me have really a lot of fun with that episode.

The rest of the evening lasts not very long. At least not for me. The beer does its job very well and i get soooooo sleepy.

Now its sunday morning and i am fit again. After two bottles of cold water and a good breakfast together with the others i feel well again and i am capable of writing this report now.

Gothics mom and friend headed out now to visit a museum, while Gothic, Della, Rambo and i are sitting in our hotel room again and fighting the non working internet connection.

Its planned that the museum visitors are back again at about 11 am and then it will follow the sad part of this great weekend. We have to say goodbye to each other and Rambo and i have to drive home again.

The meeting was really a great experience and all who haven't joined us missed a lot i think. But next time, next chance.

DC get together in Western Europe?! July 2007?Nearly the whole meeting group. Gothics moms friend is not shown. Someone has to pick the photo.

the part about your pants falling down, well i guess now you know you met cody; when i told him about the trick you played on me telling me the meeting was canceled, he must have decided you needed a little taste of your own medicine and flown out to greet you in his own trickster style.